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I have the honor, by the hand of Hon. Francis W. Bird, who is specially deputed therefor, to place in your hands an engrossed copy of the resolves of the General Court of Massachusetts, in approval of your recent message to the Congress of the United States, in favor of national co-operation with any State of this Union, in the abolishment of slavery.
I deem it due to the solemnity, interest, and importance of the occasion, and to the earnest devotion of this ancient Commonwealth, alike to the Union, the fame, and the happiness of these States and people, as well as to her hereditary love of liberty, that this expression of her hearty concurrence with your great act, should receive the most formal and cordial utterance....I devoutly pray that the good providence of God will conduct your administration and this nation through all the perils they encounter, and establish our country on eternal foundations of impartial justice to all her people.
April 9.—The Governor telegraphs to the
Secretary of War,—
Accept my congratulations on victories at Corinth, and the Mississippi.
Do you desire extra surgeons from Massachusetts for the care of wounded, there or elsewhere?
If so, there are several here, of professional eminence, who, under the direction of our State Surgeon-General, are prepared to start immediately to any point of active operations, giving their professional services gratuitously, from motives of patriotism.
April 12.—The Governor writes to
General Burnside, at
North Carolina, congratulating him upon his well-deserved promotion, which has given ‘sincere as well as universal pleasure.’
He then refers to a letter which he had received from
Brigadier-General Foster, that seven hundred and fifty recruits were needed to supply the losses in the four
Massachusetts regiments in his brigade.
But just at this time, an order had been issued from the War Department, discontinuing recruiting in every State, and requiring recruiting parties to close their offices, and join their regiments.
The Governor telegraphed to
Mr. Stanton for permission to recruit for the
Massachusetts regiments under
General Foster, and leave was granted.
At this time, the general superintendence of recruiting, in the different States, had passed into the hands of the War Department; and army officers were detailed, in various States, as military commanders, who assumed control of all enlistments, mustering, subsistence,
